Radionuclide Uptake by Plants: Soil to Plant Transfer Factors, Kinetics of Absorption and Internal Radionuclide Distribution of 137Cs and 40K in South American Species

VELASCO H.; MEIGIKOS DOS ANJOS, R.; JURI AYUB, J

Radionuclide Contamination and Remediation Through Plants

Springer

Lugar: Hannover; Año: 2014; p. 125 - 139

Abstract Soil-to-plant transfer factors (Fv) are commonly used as a key link to estimate the transference of radionuclides along the human food chain. The use of Fv in the calculations of this transfer involves the assumption that the radionuclide concentrations in plant and in the rooting zone of the soil are linearly related. However, for different ecosystems and even considering similar soil type and plant species, a large variability in Fv values has been reported, showing that other variables in addition to radionuclide soil concentration have influence in the uptake of radionuclide by plants. Another possible source of uncertainty in Fv comes from not considering the inhomogeneity in the distribution of the radionuclide in the plant. In this chapter we analize two situation: a) The capacity to incorporate Cs+ and K+ by three grass species growing in seminatural grassland of central Argentina using electrophysiological techniques and, b) the uptake of 137Cs and 40K by tropical plants and their consequent translocation to fruits. In both cases, we are considered components that are incorporated into the human food chain, and consequently there is a need of adjusting their dosimetric contribution on the population